Pushing the Boundariesof Medical SimulationThe Living Heart Project Brings Real Life Simulation to Medical Product Development

By Joyce Laird, Contributing Writer

Taking 3D modeling/virtual reality to the point of actually reflecting
all the complexities of a living heart
and how it reacts when invaded or
stimulated moves this technology
beyond anything previously attempted.

Creating this was a huge challenge that
required not just a village of focused
experts, but an army of them.

Meet Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA

SIMULIA is a brand Dassault Systèmes. The company has twelve
different brands, each with a particular
technological focus. SIMULIA, is focused on creating “simulated” versions
of objects seen in the real world.

Product developers covering almost all
industrial/consumer products use their
simulation technology. SIMULIA’s new
project was to take their simulation and
create a living organ; the human heart.

Steve Levine, Senior Director
SIMULIA Life Sciences and Executive
Director for the Living Heart Project,
Dassault Systèmes, explains, “We started by taking a design, which is geometry
and a shape, and basically bringing it to
life. We knew were capable of already
doing this, but we wanted to see how
closely we could actually simulate real
life. That led to simulating the heart as a
showcase to push our technology.”

History of the “Living Heart” Project

To get this project going, Levine immediately knew that it would require more
outside contributions than any other
project they ever faced.

Figure 1. SIMULIA built a model where the people could actually walk through theinside of a beating heart and they explained the benefits of expanding their technolgy;what it could do, who it would benefit and why they believed it was possible.